Does the Universe spin (does it have an angular momentum)?

[TCS]

I'm thinking that if the universe spins like a merry go round, then the rate of time can be the tangential velocity.

To conserve angular momentum, increased mass (energy density) causes the radius of the merry go round (manifold) to decrease to provide a constant angular momentum at all points along the manifold. The decreased radius causes a reduced tangential velocity and thus a reduced rate of time.

Although the length of space would have to correlate to a one dimensional radius and the direction of time would have to be perpendicular to the three spatial dimensions formed by the manifold in four space.

I think that a consequence would be that an expanding universe (an overall decrease in mass density of the universe) would cause time to slow even though a relative decrease in mass density speeds up the time of the localized area.

 

[Mentz114]

You might find this interesting. The Godel spacetime rotates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gödel_metric

 

[bcrowell]

This transcript of a lecture http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/smoot-lecture.html discusses observational limits on the rotation of the universe. See the part at "Also in 1967 Dennis Sciama ..."

 

[TCS]

You might find this interesting. The Godel spacetime rotates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gödel_metric

Thanks!

 

[TCS]

This transcript of a lecture http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/smoot-lecture.html discusses observational limits on the rotation of the universe. See the part at "Also in 1967 Dennis Sciama ..."

Thanks!